Cnicus. COMPOSIT.E. 4^9 



Var. OChrocentrus, Gray. Leaves deeply pinnatifid and exceedingly arme-l 

 with slender yellowish prickles: scales of the involucre broader and Hatter, destitute 

 of glutinous spot or ridge, and armed with a long and rigid prickle. — Cirsiunt 

 ochrocentruvi, Gray, PI. Fendl. 110. 



Open grounds, from' the upper Mississip])! and iioin Texas to tlie coast of Oregon, from which 

 the ordinary form probably extends into the northern part of California. Var. ochroanlruH a 

 mostly southern variety affecting arid districts, generally very distinct in character, reaches the 

 Sierra Nevada at Silver Mountain, where it was collected by Prof. Brewer. 



-t- -f- Involucre ^ narroiver, becoming campanulate or cylindraceons ; its scales feiver and 

 less closely imbricated, thinner and chartaceous, gradually longer, more tapering 

 into the prickle or prickly point : fioivers carmine or purple-red : anther-tiijs merely 

 acute. 



5. C. Arizonicus, Gray, 1. c. White-woolly, leafy to the top, 2 to 4 feet high, 

 braucliiiig and l)earing several short-peduncled or sessile heads : leaves lanceolate, 

 pectiuately toothed or pinnatifid, slender-spiny : outer scales of the involucre ovate- 

 oblong, the next lanceolate and rather abruptly narrowed into a prickly-tipiied 

 acumination : lobes of the corolla fully twice the length of the tliroat : stigmatic tip 

 of the style short. 



Common in Arizona and S. Utah ; most likely inhabiting the southeastern borders of our State. 

 Heads H to 2 inches long, apparently oblong or cylin'draceous before expansion, the involucre 

 becoming campanulate. "Flowers bright carmine" or "bright red-purple." Filaments spar- 

 ingly hairy or sometimes almost glabrous. Anther-tips remarkably blunt. Stigmatic summit 

 of the style only half a line or in age a line long above the manifest node, much shorter than in 

 any other of our indigenous North American species. 



6. C. Andersonii, Gray, 1. c. Blender, 2 or 3 feet high, sparsely leaved, the 

 Avhite wool rather cobwebby and deciduous : leaves mostly j:>innatifid and moder- 

 ately prickly-toothed : heads naked-peduncled : scales of the campanulate involucre 

 less uueiiual and in fewer series than in any of the foregoing, somewhat loose ; the 

 outer rather narrowly lanceolate and the succeeding more subulate, gradually taper- 

 ing into a short prickly point ; the innermost very long and slender : lobes of the 

 corolla not longer than the throat. 



Sierra Nevada, from Tulare Co. to Carson City and Donner Lake, Anderson, Torrcy, Bo- 

 landcr. Head 2 inches long. Flowers crimson-red. Tips of the appendages of the anthers trian- 

 gular, either acute or acutish. Stigmatic tip to the style filiform and moderately elongated ; 

 node obsolete. 



§ 2. Scales of the involucre of almost equal or moderately unequal length, all hut the 

 innermost tapering gradually into a long marginless and mostly greenish and 

 spreading or ascending usually spiny-tipped acumination. 



* Heads large {mostly 2 inches high) : Jloivers crimson : involucre densely long-xvoolly 

 when young ; the scales tapering gradually from a short coriaceous a2^pressed base 

 into long and slender hut rigid spreading spinescent tips. 



7. C OCCidentaliS, Gray, 1, c. Very white with long and dense wool, 2 to 5 

 feet high, stout : leaves lanceolate and the lowest oblong, sinuate-pin iiatitid or the 

 n]3per merely toothed, rather weak-prickly, the upper surface often becoming naked 

 with age : involucre globose ; its scales with very long and slender rigid mostly 

 subulate or almost needle-shaped and merely prickly-pointed tijis, the lowermost 

 usually widely spreading : corollas bright crimson or purple-red, regularly 5-cleft ; 

 the lobes one and a half to twice the length of the throat : tips of the anther-append- 

 ages triangular-acuminate. • — • Cardans occidentalis, Nutt. 1. c, with erroneous char- 

 acter. Cirsinm Coulteri, Gray, PI. Wright, ii, 110 ; Katon in Bot. King Ex{). 195. 



Open grounds, not rare apparently throughout the State, and within the borders of Nevada. 

 A striking species, with its white cottony wool, and large and broad heads of briglit red flowei-s. 

 Heads 2 inches high, or sometimes considerably less. Scales of the involucre an inch and a half 

 or less in length, mostly retaining the dense and long cobwebby wool. Flowers an inch and a 



